


Last Call

by DisasterStraight



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Hulk - Freeform, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 02:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17194409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisasterStraight/pseuds/DisasterStraight
Summary: After the big snap, Bruce only has one person on his mind, and he'll keep calling until he either reaches you or the rest of the world ends.





	Last Call

**Author's Note:**

> Bruce Banner is my boy. I wish I had something better to offer him than this baby-man of a fic

One snap. That’s all it took. One little snap of the fingers and the world crumbled. Countless families and lives lost in an instant. One snap and it was all over.

All of that destruction and chaos, and the only thing Bruce could think of was you. The first thought in his mind after he understood what was happening, after he learned that the entire universe had lost, was you. 

You weren’t in Wakanda, you were at home. You’d seen the starts of another crisis on the news, but had no idea of the gravity of the situation. You didn’t even know that Bruce was alive. The last you’d heard of him was when Tony called you to tell you that the Hulk had gone and piloted the quinjet into nowhere and they couldn’t track him.

When Bruce came back to New York he’d been too quickly swept up in the attack to find you. There was also a part of him that had to admit that even if he’d come back without a threat of mass destruction, he was terrified to see you. What if you turned your back on him? What if you finally saw the monster that he’d been living with for years and you wanted nothing to do with him?

But none of that mattered now, because the world had ended. Fifty percent of the universe’s population was dissolved in seconds, and he had no way to know if you were included in the death toll.

So Bruce was calling. One ring, two rings, three rings, dial tone. He didn’t leave a message. 

He called again. Ringing, ringing, ringing, dial tone. No message.

He called again and again, getting more and more panicked and desperate with each empty ring. His breathing had become ragged and quick, pushing air out of him as fast as his lungs were pulling it in. The icy sickness of realization was sinking its claws into Bruce’s stomach and chest. It was soaking deep into him. 

He was never going to see you again. He’d missed his chance. You’d suffered for the last time because he’d failed. 

A beat of silence on the phone.

“Hello? Tony?” 

A wash of warm relief crashed across Bruce’s body. It sent vibrations all the way to his fingertips and he almost dropped the phone. 

“Y/N? God, Y/N is that you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Your voice was thick and scared. It sounded like your own words were fighting against your tongue to escape. “But my mom...and my friend...” The sounds of your sobs broke across the airwaves. Bruce’s heart was wilting with grief and glowing with joy all at once. 

“I’m so sorry,” was all he could think to say.

“We were just getting on the subway,” you heaved. “We were just leaving and all of the sudden people started to disappear. They just started blowing away.”

“I know, I’m so sorry.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, like a holding of breath. Bruce was again seized by the anxiety that you were gone forever.

“Y/N? Are you still there?”

“You don’t sound like Tony,” you sniffled, your voice going cold.

Of course, Bruce remembered, he was using Tony’s phone. He hadn’t considered that you wouldn’t immediately know that it was him. 

“No, it’s not Tony. It’s Bruce.”

There was no answer for a beat, two beats, three beats. Then you said, breath heavy as a storm cloud, “Bruce?” You said his name like you couldn’t place the man it was attached to. 

“Yeah. It’s me.”

“What?” He could practically hear your normally well-greased brain grinding against the incoming information. He’d thrown a wrench into the gears of your mind. “Where are you? Where have you...” You swallowed hard. “Where did you go?”

“It’s hard to explain. I’m in Wakanda now.”

“Wakanda? Bruce, why haven’t you called me in two years? I thought something terrible happened to you. I didn’t know where you were, I didn’t know if you were coming back--”

“I know, I know. I’m so sorry. I’ve...been the other guy.” It was hard for him to say out loud, especially to someone he loved. He didn’t know how you would react.

“For two years?”

“Yeah. I was fighting in a gladiatorial deathmatch on an alien planet.”

You laughed darkly. It was bittersweet for Bruce to hear. It was the first laugh he’d heard from you in years and it was colored with pain and shock and horror.

“You’re not joking, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Wow. I’m sorry.”

There was more silence after that, but it wasn’t the anxious silence that you’d shared before. It was a more comfortable silence. The kind of silence that happens when two lovers are sitting next to each other and not needing to speak. You could hear his breathing and he could hear yours. You were both safe.

“When are you coming home?”

Bruce lost his footing. His knees went weak and he let himself come down to the dirt. That simple question meant that you two were okay. It meant forgiveness. It meant love. The kind of love that pulls you out of deep water and stays with you until you feel warm again. 

“As soon as I can. I’ll be home soon.”


End file.
